The Twins placed Neshek on outright waivers Friday, general manager Bill Smith said, and on Sunday the San Diego Padres claimed the right-handed reliever. That means that San Diego takes on the entirety of Neshek’s $625,000 contract, skimming that amount from the Twins’ own swollen payroll.

The Twins opted to put Neshek on outright waivers, Smith said, once they realized he would not have a place in their bullpen this season. Neshek did have one option left, meaning he could have been sent to the minor leagues, but the Twins decided to place him on outright waivers to clear a spot on their 40-man roster.

Smith would not say that Neshek had fallen out of favor with the organization, but it is clear that the Brooklyn Park native had. By getting Neshek off the 40-man roster, the Twins are down to 39 players, but there was no corresponding move to bump that number back up to 40; Smith said they might stay at 39 for “two weeks or six months.”

Outright waivers seemed to be the last resort for moving Neshek. Asked if the Twins tried to trade the 30-year-old side-armer before they placed him on waivers, Smith offered a read-between-the-lines answer: “This was the best option for him at this time.”

Neshek’s best season as a reliever was in 2007, when he worked his way into the setup role in the Twins bullpen. In May 2008, though, Neshek suffered a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament. He missed the rest of that season trying to rehab the injury, but months later he tore the ligament again and ultimately needed Tommy John surgery, forcing him to miss the entire 2009 season.

Last season was his first back in nearly two years, and though he made the big-league club out of camp, he ran into trouble with the organization early on.

Neshek missed time last April with what the team said was a strained flexor tendon in his right middle finger, but he ended up avoiding the disabled list. And by early May, when he told reporters that his finger felt the best it had all year, he was apparently all healed up.

About that same time, the Twins needed to make a roster move to add a catcher when Joe Mauer bruised his heel, so they decided to send Neshek to Class AAA Rochester in order to call up Wilson Ramos. But when the Twins told Neshek they were sending him down, he then told them he needed to go on the disabled list.

Neshek’s timing left Twins manager Ron Gardenhire fuming. But the trouble didn’t end there for the reliever.

Later in the month he posted messages on Facebook and Twitter saying the team had misdiagnosed his original injury, writing: “I’m not happy with anything that has gone on especially when it could have been taken care (of) 3 weeks ago and was told the wrong info. For me I’m not going to risk tearing a finger, I want this to be healed ASAP and I want to pitch ASAP. You have to understand the press really doesn’t understand what is really going on other than what they read or what they hear and they need to have something to talk about.”

Those comments required a meeting between Neshek and Gardenhire and also between Neshek and the Twins’ medical staff. Gardenhire said at that time that Neshek’s teammates were upset about his comments as well.

Gardenhire said the meetings smoothed things over, but the damage clearly was done and, it’s clear that it was never repaired.

Once Neshek returned from the DL last year he still wound up in Rochester and remained there most of the season. The Twins called up him in September, but his velocity had dropped considerably, and his results showed it. He appeared in five games, giving up three runs and walking six in 4 2/3 innings.

He came to camp this spring vying with a sizable group of pitchers for a spot in the bullpen. He gave up three runs on six hits (three home runs) in six spring outings (6 1/3 innings), and in one appearance gave up two home runs, tweeting afterward that because he touched 89 miles per hour on the radar gun that he didn’t know whether to be pleased or upset about his day.

By the time Neshek was placed on waivers Friday, Smith said it had become clear the right-hander was not going to make the 25-man roster out of camp.

“We have some other guys that have pitched well and moved ahead of him at this time on our depth chart,” Smith said.

After all the trouble Neshek stirred up with his posts on Twitter and Facebook last season, it was perhaps entirely fitting that the reliever broke the news of his move to San Diego, posting it on Twitter before either team had a chance to release the waiver claim: “I just got news that I am now a member of the San Diego Padres, packing up and heading west.”

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